Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 29, 1993                   TAG: 9310290106
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By The Washington Times
DATELINE: ARLINGTON (AP)                                LENGTH: Medium

FROM HASSLE, A BUSINESS IS BORN

After all, it was the hassle of parking at Los Angeles airports that gave Alec Harwin his inspiration: Bring the parking lot to the customer.

"Instead of forcing people to deal with the annoyance of getting between the airport terminal and their car, a company that offers literal door-to-door service could be a money-making business," he said.

His AirPark, starting its second year of business just down the pike from Washington National Airport, does just that.

On a few acres of asphalt on U.S. 1 across from the old Potomac Rail Yards, AirPark uses a fleet of radio-dispatched vans to take people from their cars to their airline gate, and, more conveniently, to pick passengers up at the gate and take them directly back to their cars.

Harwin is close to paying back his backers - his family put up most of the $300,000 initial investment - from this first big-business venture, and he has already embarked on his next venture, a phone-in movie schedule information line.

Harwin and his partner, Brad Marx, were colleagues in ventures as teen-agers in Virginia Beach, selling T-shirts, and later as undergraduates in Los Angeles, writing a screenplay, "In Search of Elvis."

They saw the AirPark possibility after flying frequently from the West Coast to the East. "Others had this type of private enterprise airpark concept in Los Angeles, and we saw it could work here," Marx said.

The company has three shuttles, each with room for 14 passengers and their luggage. A radio dispatcher sends the driver to pick up arriving passengers after they call from the main airport terminal.

"We give people a little wallet card with our number on it, and if they call right after they land, we can be there by the time they collect their luggage and get to the door," Harwin said.

Although the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority's parking lots have a low rate of vandalism - its new lots are under police surveillance 24 hours a day - Harwin boasts that at AirPark, a car can come out looking better than it did when it went in. AirPark, also under 24-hour guard, offers a car wash, wax and oil change.

Starting with 10 cars on its first day in August 1992, the business has grown to about 75 cars a day, with an average stay of three days per car in a lot that has room for 215.

At $7.95 a day, AirPark's charges compare with the airport's fees of $8 to $10 a day, depending on location of the lot.

What does the airport authority think?

"We welcome any option for our passengers, anything that gives the customer a choice," spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said.